Thinkpads Forum

I won an auction, the other day, for an X301 on ebay. The seller subsequently wrote to me:

"I brought the computer to FedEx to ship yesterday. The clerk took the box and set it on counter while processing the shipment. The clerk next to her was processing a larger box, which fell off the scale and knocked both boxes to the ground."

The seller said he's taking it to someone to examine whether it was damaged. But he also, very nicely, offered to cancel the transaction and refund my money, if I'm not comfortable with the computer anymore.

I wrote to ask more questions about how the computer was packed when it was dropped. If he says it appears to be undamaged and working okay, should I worry about it? Could there be some sort of damage that would only show up later, after being carried around and jiggled more?

It's one of the harder to find 1.6 Ghz models, so I paid a fair amount for it. I'm also considering asking for a discount for taking a chance on it. What might be reasonable in that case?

Thanks for any thoughts.

If it was packed like it should have been, it is likely to be OK. It would almost certainly experience similar drops and falls during the normal course of shipping, what with the conveyor systems and human handling it will receive as it's moved around warehouses and tossed into/out of delivery trucks, etc.

If the seller finds no broken plastic, and everything seems to work OK, you should be good. If you can negociate a discount with the seller....even better!

Thanks Neil. Yes, I'm trying to find out how it was packed. Hopefully in the original packing.

Is there not much chance that something, say, on the motherboard came a little loose and might break later? I've searched around some and seen some people talk about capacitors breaking off of motherboards when a computer was dropped (not in packing).

I suppose it can happen, but I don't consider it very likely. Once, I dropped my X40 (lid closed and on stand-by) on a hard floor at the hospital, from about waist high, and to my surprise, there was absolutely no damage!

Thanks. I guess it will be interesting, when I hear back about how the computer was packed.

Curious if anyone else has experience dropping computers in the box or outside of it.

Never had a problem with properly packaged ThinkPads.

They are rugged and furthermore the X30x is an excellent build so I would not worry at all.

Fair seller they are to even mention it.

Brad

I guess I have the model you are buying.
I left mine on my bedside cabinet once, which is about 60cm or so high lid closed and went to the bathroom.
I then heard my two year old son come upstairs and go into my bedroom there shortly folllowed a dull thud.
The X301 had been pulled onto the carpeted floor.
I'm not sure what part of the laptop hit the ground first.
However this was about 12 months ago and there are no problems with the laptop.
If yours was well packed then you will have no problems.

You'll be fine. Heck, you'd be OK if it had been dropped naked, but in this case, it was in a nice padded box. Unit was off, so no hard drive damage, in a box, so no shock damage.

Thanks to everyone for the responses and sharing their experiences. It's good to hear. I wasn't sure what to make of this situation or how much to worry.

Obviously, it's one thing to drop a computer one already owns, so you're stuck with it anyway, after which one is simply relieved and impressed that it survived. But when you've just spent hundreds of dollars and don't even have the computer yet, it becomes a question of, is it worth taking a chance, when you don't have to?

It is very honest of the seller, as someone said, to have told me. I'm still waiting to hear back what the results are of his inspection of the computer.

Anyway, thanks again for the helpful replies. It makes me feel much more relaxed about the whole thing.

It would've gotten tossed around in transit anyway. Not a big deal.